Creating a Custom Setup Program for New OS/400 Software

Hey, Shannon:

My company writes software for a niche industry, and we've been pretty successful with it. In fact, we are adding new clients all the time. In the past, when we put our software on our clients' AS/400s, we pretty much used existing OS/400 job descriptions, subsystems, and the like. What we'd really like to do, in order to give our software that "professional" touch, is to come up with some kind of setup program that would allow us to generate the OS/400 objects we need to allow our software to run in our own subsystems and such. Oh yeah, and we also have a couple of jobs we want to kick off automatically every time the AS/400 IPLs. Can you help us?

--Software developers in Cincinnati

Wow! You found a way to make money in this economy? Congratulations! Where do I send my resume? If you are wanting to give your software that professional touch, the easiest way to get started is by deciding what OS/400 objects you will need and then writing a little setup program to take care of it for you.

Here are the OS/400 objects you'll need, at a minimum, to enable your software to run in its own subsystem:

• Subsystem Description--This object is where you can submit all of your jobs.
• Job Class--This object is used to define the runtime characteristics of the jobs that run in your new subsystem.
• Job Queue--You'll need a job queue to submit your batch jobs to the new subsystem.
• Job Description--This will tell your submitted jobs such things as what library list to use while executing and the name of any jobs you want to have started automatically every time jobs are submitted via that job description.

In addition, you mentioned that you want certain jobs to start automatically every time the system IPLs. To achieve that functionality, you will need to do two things. The first is to write your own custom CL program to replace the system Startup program. In your custom CL program, make sure you issue a STRSBS (Start Subsystem) command for your new subsystem. This will ensure that it starts every time the system IPLs. Don't forget to change the system value QSTRUPPGM (Startup Program) to point to your new startup program.

Second, you will need to add an Autostart Job Entry (AJE) to your Subsystem description that defines what program you want to have started when the subsystem starts.

Click here to view a CL program that demonstrates how you might achieve the above functionality.

--Shannon

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